Here are a bunch of mostly numerical facts and opinions about the AT and my thru-hike, just for fun!

• 2,198.4 trail miles
• ~2,300 actual miles hiked (take the side trails!)
• 24.9 trail miles on my longest day (with at least 0.5 side miles for a 25-mile day!)
• 187 days
• 84 nights in tent
  • 34 nights tenting at a shelter
  • 50 nights elsewhere/”stealth camping”
• 45 nights in a shelter
• 57 nights off trail (including 6 for my week off trail in April, and a handful where I tented at places technically off trail, e.g. Warwick Drive-In)
• 18 zero days (including 6 for time off trail in April)
• 1 double zero (not including time off trail in April)
• 24 nero days
• 7 hero days (these two categories are nebulous – just based on what the day felt like)
• 42 days hiking in any sort of rain
• 5 catholes dug (yup, only 5. use them privies)
• 1 black bear
• 1 rattlesnake
• 0 moose 😦
• many deer
• many black rat snakes
• at least 6 duplicate trail names
• 19 unique family members met up with on trail
• 4 fancy backpacking meals consumed
• 0 fancy backpacking meals purchased for myself (trail magic and hiker boxes)

States of the AT, Ranked

All 14 states based on how much I enjoyed them. There’s a lot of leeway here, especially in the middle. All in good fun

• 1a. New Hampshire
• 1b. Maine
• 3. Virginia
• 4. North Carolina
• 5. Georgia
• 6. New Jersey
• 7. Vermont
• 8. Massachusetts
• 9. New York
• 10. Maryland
• 11. Connecticut
• 12. West Virginia
• 13. Pennsylvania
• 14. Tennessee*

*Tennessee is kinda a meme for me. ~250 miles of the trail straddle the TN-NC border, and I unfairly give NC all of the credit for this amazing section. But I was primed against TN based on their lack of privies and poor/non-existent bear infrastructure. Do better! I didn’t particularly enjoy the part of TN after NC was truly behind me, either. So it gets last place!

Poor Pennsylvania. PA is basically universally regarded as the worst section of the AT, especially in the northern half of the state. It’s called Rocksylvania for a reason, and the rocks make it a difficult section, and in an annoying way. It wasn’t particularly rewarding with views etc. for our trouble. However, let the record reflect that I still enjoyed Pennsylvania, even northern PA! (“I’m starting to like Northern PA, despite the rocks.” -Shaggy, 6/17/23) It’s just a high bar, and something has to be down there in the list. Sorry.

States of the AT, Ranked by Salience

Both before, during, and after my thru-hike, there were states that came up in conversation with other hikers much more than others. This is an attempt to rank the states based on their salience in this fashion. This is based on my own personal experience, but it is informed by some casual conversations with other hikers too.

• 1. Maine
• 2. Virginia
• 3. New Hampshire
• 4. Pennsylvania
• 5. Georgia
• 6. West Virginia
• 7. Tennessee
• 8. North Carolina
• 9. New Jersey
• 10. Vermont
• 11. New York
• 12. Massachusetts
• 13. Maryland
• 14. Connecticut

Finances

A lot of people have asked about my finances during my hike. It is a really important thing to plan for and keep in mind, although I tried not to think about it too much as I went. I did my best to diligently track all of my expenditures along the way. I have shared some highlights below. If you are interested in more the details, please reach out and I would be happy to share more privately.

• $4222.23 spent, total, on on-trail expenditures over the course of my thru-hike. (This does not include my initial flight to ATL, or my unexpected flights to and from Boston to go home for a week in April.)
• $2295.48 on food, about evenly split between groceries/resupplies and eating out in towns.
• $1113.49 on lodging. The balance was primarily transportation and gear additions/replacements.

Monthly Breakdown

• March: $875.41
• April: $622.86
• May: $701.85
• June: $530.31
• July: $527.34
• August & September: $964.46

By far the most expensive months were March and August (combined with my inexpensive one week on trail in September). I attribute this to slower pace with more stops, as well as the higher cost of living in New England in the latter case. The least expensive months were June and July, which I think is mostly due to a high concentration of family meetups in the Northeast and the generosity of the people and trail angels in my life.

Gear

Speaking of generosity, my family and friends chipped in a ton to help me get outfitted for the AT. They were instrumental in helping me hit the ground running. My final gear list cost $4093.48. However, my own expenditures, for gear newly for the AT, were only $1577.46. Some of my gear, especially most of my clothing, I already owned and had been using for some time before the AT (but even some of those items were generous gifts!). My family and friends collaborated to cover much of the remainder. It doesn’t hurt that Christmas and my birthday were nicely timed for when I needed to be gearing up 😉 I am forever grateful for your contributions to my thru-hike! I never could have done it without you all.

On the whole, I spent less on my thru-hike than I anticipated. (My gear costs were higher than I would’ve guessed, though – I was surprised to do the math just now!) I think my on-trail costs were less than other people’s, and certainly less than they could have been. I’m generally a frugal person, sometimes to a fault, and this led me to prioritize nero days over zeros to save the cost of another night in town, to give one example. I do not feel like I skimped on hostel stays or town stops, but generally felt content to just spend a single night in a particular place, and only when I felt like I needed to. In other words, I wasn’t prone to stop for the night at a hostel just because one was there. I was quite content with this strategy, and would not want to do it differently, but other people would want to, and did, and that’s a-ok. I also preferred bunk rooms at hostels to private rooms or hotel stays. These lodging decisions were the biggest cost-saving measure I took on the trail relative to other hikers, in my estimation. I also hitchhiked when possible. I kept my resupplies cheap by doing everything I could to fuel up at grocery stores rather than gas stations or hostels, buying in relative bulk when possible, and avoiding fancy, expensive backpacking meals. There are many, many excellent reasons why hikers could choose to make different decisions about all of this; this is just how it shook out in my experience.

My Favorite Sections of Trail

• 1. The Whites
• 2. The Smokies
• 3. The Hundred Mile Wilderness